They, With Their Usual Rudeness, Searched
Every Part Of My Apparel, And Stripped Me Of All My Gold, Amber, My
Watch, and one of my pocket compasses; I had fortunately, in the night,
buried the other compass in the sand;
And this, with the clothes I had
on, was all that the tyranny of Ali had now left me.
The gold and amber were highly gratifying to Moorish avarice, but the
pocket compass soon became an object of superstitious curiosity. Ali was
very desirous to be informed, why that small piece of iron, the needle,
always pointed to the Great Desert, and I found myself somewhat puzzled
to answer the question. To have pleaded my ignorance, would have created
a suspicion that I wished to conceal the real truth from him; I therefore
told him, that my mother resided far beyond the sands of Sahara, and that
whilst she was alive, the piece of iron would always point that way, and
serve as a guide to conduct me to her, and that if she was dead, it would
point to her grave. Ali now looked at the compass with redoubled
amazement; turned it round and round repeatedly; but observing that it
always pointed the same way, he took it up with great caution and
returned it to me, manifesting that he thought there was something of
magic in it, and that he was afraid of keeping so dangerous an instrument
in his possession.
March 20th. This morning a council of chief men was held in Ali's tent
respecting me; their decisions, though they were all unfavourable to me,
were differently related by different persons.
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